


Language

by tandum (nea_writes)



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3642795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nea_writes/pseuds/tandum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gon was proficient in languages.</p><p>“How many languages do you know?”</p><p>“Well, the one we’re speaking now, and fish’, and birds, and Hisoka’s, and Kurapika’s, and Killua’s!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Verbal

**Author's Note:**

> Blank spaces intentional. If formatting is strange, please forgive it. I'm used to fanfiction's.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Killua realizes there are many sides to a person than one first assumes.

Gon was proficient in languages.

Frankly, it had shocked Killua, because the teen had rudely thought little of Gon’s academics due to the variety of times the brunet had been unable to calculate simple maths-well, simple to Killua, that is.

Not to say Killua had thought Gon dumb. There was a frightening intelligence in the way Gon could read people and situations, delving into the heart of the matter with little to no resistance. Killua mused this aptitude had come about from living on the island, where the people there wore their heart on their sleeves and animals had surrounded Gon. You could say Gon simply understood the nature of people.

It had been a well fit contrast between the two boys. Killua, with his cold, sharp, analytical demeanor and his daunting wit, and Gon, simple, precise, and naive Gon, who read people better than Killua ever would. Killua could see into their hearts, but he could not feel them like Gon could.

It had stung his pride, to be honest. There was a clamoring desire to be the best at everything (he knew it was his family who had beat it into him. Be _fastest, strongest, smartest, coldest, don’t feel, be the head, you’re the best you have to be the best_ ).But the shame of his envy abated when the overwhelming pride of Gon surged. The foreign sensation swelled within his heart, made his nerves giddy in excitement. He was _proud of Gon_ , damn it, and he was proud of being proud. (There had always been that fear-still was. Was he too far gone? Too cold, too selfish, too much like Illumi? He wasn’t, wasn’t, wasn't. Gon wouldn’t let him be that way.)

Nonetheless, when Gon opened his mouth and smoothly replied in a tongue strange to Killua’s ears, the white haired boy’s jaw fell slack. Gon chattered eagerly with the stranger, hands waving to emphasize points Killua could not understand and eyes beaming with knowledge Killua did not have. When had this happened? Ignorance was Gon’s forte, not Killua’s!

He gripped Gon’s dark arm when they and the foreigner had parted ways, bringing the boys to a standstill as Killua glared. “Since when do you speak...whatever that was?!”

“     ?” Gon said, an alien word curling from his lips. “Uh, you mean what I was speaking just now?”

“Yes!” Killua said. “ _That_! When did you learn it?”

“Hm. Well, I didn’t attend school as much as Mito-san would have liked me to. I was too busy trying to catch the King fish. So, I learned it. It helped calm Mito-san down, and I figured since Ging could be anywhere, he might be there too.” Gon laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m still not the best at it. I forgot a lot of words!”

It was odd to know another language. Since most of the world spoke the same one, what was the use of learning another? It was the reason the Zoldyck family didn’t learn it. It was unnecessary. If you were wealthy enough to hire an assassin, then you had to know the common tongue.

In awe, Killua said, “That’s pretty cool.”

“You think?”

“ _I_ don’t know it, and neither does anyone else we know. So, yeah!”


	2. Non-Verbal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Killua finds out how many languages Gon knows and finds himself too worldly for his own good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tag says 'implied relationship' when really its just a crush.

Gon was proficient in languages.

Something like laughter bubbled up within Killua, a certain crazed giddiness that had him grimacing and grinning, hands scrambling to cover his uncertain mouth. When he recalled the disbelief and envy he’d felt all those years ago, shame and embarrassment crept up his neck to taint his ears. Quick on it’s tail was the amusement and kind of nostalgia that left you smiling with a pleasure that only reminiscence can bring.

Killua’s mind had been _blown_ by the concept of Gon knowing another language, when really it had been so _obvious_. Gon was like Canary in the odd way that they understood fluently the words Killua did and did not say, read the nuances in his voice and the texture of the creases in his face that spoke what he really meant. They took his proverbial trembling hand and cradled it gently in the understanding shining in their eyes.

Gon understood Killua - had from the moment they meant and Gon had not shied away from the weight his family’s name carried. Killua knew rejection intimately, was embraced within the cold cruel sensation, had grown accustomed to it’s chilling nauseating ways. Acceptance was a strange wonderful thing, one Gon had introduced to him in that simple pleasant way of his.

‘Language’ was a misnomer, when the verbal sense of the word was far from what Killua meant when he said Gon was fluent in the prose he spoke. How did one say you were proficient in the language one’s body spoke without making it sound like an innuendo? Killua still did not know, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell Gon that without figuring it out. Too embarrassing. He could just imagine the confusion and glee that would war on Gon’s face as he felt the praise behind the words he could not understand.

It was hard for Killua to say what he really wanted ( _thank you, you’re my world, you changed my life, I don’t know where I would be without you_ ). A seemingly insurmountable pride stood somewhere in between his brain where his words were and his mouth where they needed to come from. Not only that, his feelings were a confession he didn’t feel ready to approach yet.

Still, it needed to be said, someday, somehow. Before the life they both chose led them to an unfortunate fate ( _Killua would die with regrets, he knew._ )

“Gon,” Killua said.

“Yes Killua?” The tanned boy stopped, turning to meet Killua’s eyes.

“How many languages do you know?”

“Hmmm,” Gon mused, fingertip coming to tap on his chin as he gazed inward. “Tons! I can’t name them all! Though I could-”

“Name the first few that pop into head!” Killua urged, not wanting to hear a long litany of words he could not pronounce.

“Well, the one we’re speaking now, and fish’, and birds, and Hisoka’s, and Kurapika’s, and Killua’s!”

Baffled, Killua tried desperately to keep his blush down. “Those are people and animals! Those aren’t languages!”

“Sure they are! Or is there another word for that? Everybody is different.” Gon protested, eyebrows drawing into a crease.

Killua hesitated. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t really know how to describe it. Just...people speak differently. Like with Killua, you’re eyebrows and hands sometimes say something different to what your mouth does!”

_He’s means their body language. Is that something you would consider ‘knowing?’_

“Are...are you saying you’re fluent in my body language?” Killua said, the words, not to mention the double meaning he hadn’t intended to deliver but that lay in the undercurrents regardless, sending a furious crimson up his neck and across his face from ear to ear.

“Yea! Body language...that works much better!” Gon replied innocently, happily.

Killua continued walking, overtaking Gon and slipping his arms to bend behind his head. “You’re so embarrassing!”

“What? Killua, what do you mean! How am I embarrassing?” Gon cried behind him, and Killua could hear the steady footsteps that carried Gon closer. “Hey Killua, tell me!”


End file.
